Lemon Vanilla Cheesecake with Blueberry Cassis Coulis

Cheesecake is a divine invention: tasty crust, yummy creamy filling, and berries to boost the whole thing into a blissful combination of textures and flavors!

Too bad it always contains so much lactose that even a tiny little bit gets my stomach upset.

Oops, did I just write always?

Then I made a mistake! Namely, if you use vegan cream cheese instead of a dairy one, even people like me can enjoy cheesecake without a tummy ache.

This is what you need for about 8 servings:

For the crust:

• 120g vegan margarine


• 80g gingerbread cookies


• 80g ground almonds


• 5 Tbsp rolled oats

For the filling:

• 675g vegan cream cheese (I used Tofutti, the only brand available in Finland)


• 100ml vegan natural yoghurt


• 100g confectioner’s sugar


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• grated zest of 1 organic lemon

For the coulis:

• 200g frozen blueberries


• 50g sugar


• 50ml crème de cassis liquor

Start with the blueberries: combine the berries and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil. Let simmer uncovered over a medium heat until most of the liquid is gone. (Don’t worry, I didn’t forget the crème de cassis liquor. It will come later in the picture!)

In the meantime, prepare the crust. Using a bread knife, crush the gingerbread cookies into fine crumbs. Combine the crumbs, almond meal, and rolled oats in a baking bowl, then add the softened margarine and work with your fingers until the mixture is homogenous. Take a round form (mine has a diameter of 26cm) and press the dough evenly on its bottom. Chill while you prepare the filling.

To make the filling, combine all ingredients in a bowl and beat with a hand mixer until the mixture is creamy and smooth. Pour the filling on the crust and chill for about one hour in the freezer. The cheesecake should be really cold but not frozen!

Now back to the coulis. When the blueberry jam is thick enough, remove it from heat and let cool a bit. At the time of the serving, it should be still warm to create a perfect contrast with the chilled cake. Just before serving, combine crème de cassis liquor and the blueberry jam in a cup and spoon over the cheesecake.

Enjoy with a good coffee!

Orange and Almond Filo Rolls - a Perfect Vegan Dessert

I guess my next posts will be about filo pastry for a while, I'm in love with this stuff! It seems you can fill it with just about anything and it will taste gorgeous.

And to tell the truth - this filling isn't actually just anything: it combines so many flavours it just could not not taste perfect. Vanilla, orange, orange blossom water, almonds - and not to forget the Port glaze (no, I didn't accidentally spill some red wine on the plate - I'm considering to try white Port wine next time, because of the colour ;) ) And did I mention it's 100% vegan?

This portion was supposed to be for 5, but I ended up eating two right away.

For 5 big rolls you need:

• 5 A4-size sheets of filo pastry

For the filling:

• 150g silken tofu


• 75g soy-based cream-cheese


• 2 Tbsp agave syrup


• 2 Tbsp orange syrup (from home-made candied orange peel)


• 8g vanilla sugar


• 30g almond meal


• a handful of finely chopped candied orange peel (preferably home-made)

For the orange glaze:

• 3-4 Tbsp agave syrup


• 1 tsp orange blossom water

For the Port glaze:

• 200ml Port wine


• 2 cinnamon sticks

Preheat your oven to 200C. Combine all the ingredients of the filling in a bowl and stir until well combined. Place one filo sheet at a time on a working surface and place about 2 Tbsp of the filling at one corner, more or less the size you want the final product to be (leave a margin, though). Fold the pastry so that the result is a roll not dropping too much of the filling out :) This needs some getting-used-to. (One of mine broke quite badly, but I just wrapped it in one extra filo sheet.)

Place the rolls in an oven-proof dish and bake until golden brown and crispy. In the meantime, warm the agave syrup and the orange blossom water in a small saucepan and keep the glaze ready: as soon as the rolls come out of the oven, brush them with the syrup. Let cool a bit.

In the meantime, prepare the Port glaze: place the Port wine and the cinnamon sticks in a saucepan and let boil over high heat until the liquid has reduced to about 5 Tbsp. Now, place the rolls on a serving plate and pour 1 Tbsp over each. Decorate with a couple of mint leaves if you happen to have some.

Oh, and needless to say - serve your filo rolls with a glass of your favourite Port! Saúde!

 

 

Easy Cake Decorating Ideas: Princess Cake with a Heart

Today, for once, we had a very late breakfast and a late lunch, so I'd thought we'd survive until dinner without having to eat any snack in between. How wrong I was! Around 4PM I started to crave something sweet, and inspired by our ladybird cake experience yesterday, I decided to bake a quick princess cake. Less than one hour later, we were devouring this raspberry-flavoured treat!

I'm not a big talent in cake decorating, but this one is really easy to make. And, as far as I'm concerned, it's more important how a cake tastes than what it looks like :)

This time, I wanted to try baking the cake with whole-grain flour, and it worked very well indeed. A small step towards a healthier treat...

For one cake you need:

• 4 eggs


• 100ml sugar


• 200ml whole-grain wheat flour


• 1tsp baking powder


• 75ml milk


• 75ml raspberry juice


• 100ml raspberry jam


• 200ml heavy cream


• 200g marzipan


• a few drops red food colouring


• 1 tsp powder sugar

This is how to do it:

Preheat the oven to 175C. Beat the eggs and sugar in a baking bowl and add sifted flour in which you’ve added the baking powder. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until the flour is well combined with the rest. Pour the batter in a round cake form and bake until golden brown, or some 15 minutes.

In the meantime, beat the cream until soft peaks form. Take about half of the cream and mix it with the raspberry jam.

When the cake is well baked, remove it from the oven and let cool, then remove from the form and cut horizontally into two pieces either using a sharp knife or a string.

Place the bottom half on a serving plate. Moisten with half of the milk and half of the raspberry juice. Spread the cream-raspberry-filling on the bottom half, then place the upper half on top and moisten with the rest of the milk and raspberry juice. Spread the remaining cream evenly on top of the cake.

Roll the  marzipan between two layers of cling film into a disc just a bit bigger than the cake’s diameter. From one corner, take out a heart with a cookie cutter. Trim the rest of the marzipan if needed. Place the disc carefully on top of the cake and fold to cover the sides as well (I wasn't very careful enough today, and the marzipan broke in two places...). Sprinkle with powder sugar. Colour the heart with few drops of red colouring. Place the heart in the middle of the cake and enjoy!

 

 

Easy Cake Decorating Ideas: Ladybird Cake

One of the first baking books I ever got was called Tule mukaan (Come along!). Recently, as I was going through it I saw that I had marked some of the recipes with a mysterious "B" - and I suddenly remembered that it stood for Birthday - things I wanted to serve at my birthday party. (Which I never did - my Mom would always bake her traditional cream cake - not bad, either!)

Among the recipes marked with "B", there was this ladybird cake. Back in those days, there wasn't coloured marzipan available, so the recipe tells you how to colour marzipan with red food colour, only available at the pharmacy back then. Maybe that's one of the reasons I never actually baked the cake myself...

Now the same cake was the first thing my kids wanted to try out from that book. They don't like marzipan, so we opted for red sugar mass - but I'd definitely use marzipan if I was only baking for myself. The cake tasted surprisingly good: fresh and tasty. Too often, this kind of cakes are just too sweet to my taste, but not this one! As far as I know, ladybirds don't have tails, but we had to add one more lolly so that all the three kids would have a lolly of their own.

For one cake you need:

• 4 eggs


• 100ml sugar


• 150ml all-purpose flour ( I used 1/3 whole-grain)


• 1 tsp baking powder

 

For the filling:

• 100ml heavy cream


• 100ml apple sauce (not too sweet)


• 1tsp vanilla sugar

 

For the topping:

• 100ml apple sauce


• one package of red sugar mass (I didn't take the reference of how many grams that was...)


• 2 liquorice bars, cut in 1cm pieces


• 2 lollipops (we had to use 3 - see above)

 

• Plus about 150ml milk for the moistening of the cake

This is how to do it:

Preheat the oven to 175C. Beat the eggs and sugar in a baking bowl and add sifted flour in which you've added the baking powder. Stir gently with a wooden spoon until the flour is well combined with the rest. Pour the batter in a round cake form and bake until golden brown, or some 15 minutes.

In the meantime, beat the cream until soft peaks form. Add vanilla sugar and the apple puree into the cream.

When the cake is well baked, remove it from the oven and let cool, then remove from the form and cut horizontally into two pieces either using a sharp knife or a string.

Place the bottom half on a serving plate. Moisten with about 75ml milk. Spread the cream-apple-filling on the bottom half, then place the upper half on top and moisten with the rest of the milk. Spread the 100ml apple puree on top.

Roll the sugar mass (or marzipan) between two layers of cling film into a disc just a bit bigger than the cake's diameter. Place the disc carefully on top of the cake and fold to cover the sides as well. Decorate your ladybird with the liquorice bar pieces (the dots) and lollies (the antennas).

I bet the cake gets even better if you let in stand in the fridge overnight. We had to eat it right away, though, so I can't tell for sure...!

P.S. In the original recipe, the middle part of the cake was cut out to make the ladybird oval instead of round. We didn't do that - we preferred to have a bigger cake ;)

 

Day 20: Christmas Jello Cubes

When I was a kid, my mom used to make jello cubes in different colours and flavours around the Christmas time. I remember how much fun it was to cut those colourful cubes and toss them in sugar - and get to taste quite a few at the same time! What made the whole thing so special was that back in the 80's, all those ingredients (agar, colouring agents, aromas) had to be bought at the pharmacy.

What wasn't fun was the horrible stench of cooking agar. I didn't want to be anywhere near our kitchen when the cooking part was done! Somehow this didn't seem to bother my mom. And funny enough, it didn't bother me now - one more sign that I'm not getting younger ;)

The other night, I was lying in my bed and couldn't sleep. Suddenly I remembered those jello cubes - and had an inspiration: what if I made ones with glögg, or a Christmas drink popular all over Scandinavia? I had to get up and check if someone had already come up with that idea - and, as (almost) always is the case, I found two recipes for glögg jello cubes. I tried this one, and the result is awesome!

For about 34 smallish jello cubes you need:

• 250 ml water


• 250 ml sugar


• 7,5g agar


• 100ml glögg concentrate (I used my favourite brand, Marli) - or any other syrup of your liking


• plus some extra sugar for tossing the cubes

This is how to do it:

Place water, sugar, and agar in a sauce pan. Bring to the boil and let simmer, constantly stirring it, until all of the agar has dissolved and the liquid thickens. According to the agar package I used, this should have taken 5-10 minutes. The recipe said 30 minutes. I cooked mine for about 20 minutes, but this was clearly too little - all of the agar hadn't dissolved yet.

Then add the glögg concentrate (or syrup) and stir. Remove from heat. Pour the mixture in a rectangular recipient (about 10cm times 20cm), the bottom of which you have covered with a piece of parchment paper. Let cool in the fridge or outside until completely set.

When the jello is set, reverse it on a working surface and remove the parchment paper. Cut the jello in cubes about 2cm times 2cm. Toss the cubes in sugar and place on a plate. Let dry for a few hours and store. If you can resist eating them before, that is!

Day 18: Stars, Moons, and One More Log

Today, I baked two of the most beloved Plätzchen: Vanillekipferl and Zimtsterne. Vanilla crescents and cinnamon stars, that is! For the stars I used the recipe from last year, but for the vanilla crescents I tried a traditional German recipe that I couldn't make work last year. Only this time, I was equipped with a special form for this kind of cookies, and that made all the difference; the cookies turned out impeccable!

So here's the recipe to try if you've got that Kipferl form at your disposal:

In a bowl, combine 100g ground almonds, 50g sugar, 150g all-purpose flour, 8g vanilla sugar, and a pinch of salt (if the butter you're using is unsalted). Add 150g butter cut in small cubes, and rub the flour in the dry ingredients until you can form a ball with the dough! Take small amounts of the dough (about 12g) and form long sticks. Bend them to fit in the Kipferl form. Bake in a preheated oven (150C) about 20 minutes or until well cooked but not brown yet. Let the cookies cool a bit and very, very carefully transfer them on a serving plate. They break very easily at this point! Sprinkle some confectioner's sugar on top and enjoy one of the best things ever invented in Germany ;)



In addition, I felt confident enough to make one more Christmas log; the feedback this morning was overwhelmingly positive! This time, I added 1 Tbsp extra strong instant coffee in the butter icing - sublime! I also used potato starch in the batter instead of all-purpose flour (a bit less than half the amount) and the Swiss roll came out just the way it should. I was planning to freeze the log, but my kids convinced me to serve it tomorrow for their dad's birthday. Oh well, maybe I'll have to make a third one this year..

 

Day 17: Chocolate Yule Log

Today, I didn't bake anything for my reverse Advent's calendar.

Instead, I finally made one of my dreams come true: I baked a real bûche de Noël, or a Yule log! (How cool that the word yule exist, by the way - just like jul in Swedish!) Theoretically, I could have kept it for our Christmas dinner - according to some recipes I read, a Yule log can be frozen up to three months.

But this one is going to a very special purpose: a class I'm teaching is going to eat it tomorrow - it's their last French class before their Christmas holidays... Hope they'll be as thrilled as my kids who got to eat the test version today - and made me promise we'll have one for the Christmas dinner as well ;)

At the same time, I got the chance two other things I had never done before: making a real ganache and butter icing - how can I have missed these two this long?! Well, now I know how to make them!

The following recipe is for one log. It's adapted from this recipe - I browsed a lot of different ones, and somehow this seemed perfect. And it was...

I made double this portion, and used about 1/4 to make a small test version, and the rest to build a very big log! I'd say one portion is big enough for 10 people.

I had some serious problems in getting the Swiss roll done properly: it broke in several places when I tried to roll it in. Luckily, everything is covered with that butter icing, so no-one will see that. Anyway, I'd be thankful for some tips about how to make a perfect Swiss roll!

This is what you need for the Swiss roll:

• 4 eggs


• 3/4 cup sugar


• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour


• 1/4 cup cocoa powder


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 3 Tbsp melted butter

For the ganache:

• 180ml heavy cream


• 180g dark chocolate (about 60% or so)

For the butter icing:

• 1 cup butter, softened


• 1,5 cups confectioner's sugar


• 3 Tbsp cocoa powder


• + a bit of heavy cream, if needed

For the decoration:

• marzipan figures


• confectioner's sugar

First, prepare the ganache. Bring the cream to the boil in a saucepan, remove from heat, and add the chopped chocolate. Stir until the chocolate melts. Place in a cool place - this time of the year, even my room temperature was cool enough! Fridge is not a good option, though; try a cold-water bath instead if your house is warmer than mine. Let the ganache-to-be stand about one hour. Then beat the mixture until it gets fluffy and somewhat less dark. This took about 7 minutes with my spiral whisk!

Then it's time to prepare the Swiss roll. Combine flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside. Beat the eggs and the sugar in another bowl until the mixture is pale and thick. Add sifted flour mixture and the butter and stir until well combined. Pour the batter on an oven tray covered with a parchment paper. Leave a margin on all sides. My cake was about 35cm times 25cm.

Bake in a preheated oven (200C) about 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. In the meantime, place another parchment paper on a baking tray. Sprinkle some sugar on it. Once you take the cake out, reverse it immediately on the sugar-covered parchment paper. Remove the original paper and roll the cake in, starting from the side closer to you. (Like I told you, mine broke in several places. I have no idea what went wrong!) Let the cake cool while you prepare the butter icing.

Soften the butter and beat it until it gets creamy and fluffy. Then add sifted confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder, and rub them in the butter. Add some cream if needed (I didn't need any, but then again, I just couldn't use all of the sugar amount either! It felt horribly over-sweet as it was - with maybe 3/4 of the sugar amount of the original recipe!).

When the ganache and the butter icing are ready and the cake has cooled to room temperature, it's time to build the log. Roll the cake out again, spread the ganache evenly on top of it, and roll in again. Spread the butter icing on your log and, using a small spatula, create a wood-a-like surface (this was really easy with the butter icing! I just love it!). Decorate with any marzipan figures you like, and sprinkle with some confectioner's sugar. We want some snow for Christmas, don't we?!

I made my marzipan leaves and mushrooms myself. I had planned to buy them, but, well, maybe I just don't know the right places to go in Helsinki - or there aren't any available. At least I couldn't find any. So equipped with some natural-coloured marzipan and a bottle of green and red colour I managed some mushrooms, green leaves, and red berries.

The log can be kept 2-3 days in the fridge (if it fits ;) ), or frozen.

P.S. You can flavour the ganache and the butter icing - next time, I'll use some coffee in both! Or how about orange? Or - well, just consult your Flavour Thesaurus for further ideas!



 

Day 8: Little Josephines

Last weekend I baked two Chocolate Mousse Cakes, so I had a lot of egg yolks that I had to use as soon as possible. Luckily I didn't have to wait long to get an inspiration.

In the morning I was reading one of my favourite baking books Underbart är gott, and happened to see an interesting recipe that only required four ingredients: egg yolks, butter, marzipan, and almond flakes. That sounded so crazy I just had to try these little cakes called Josephines. I was almost sure this could only result in a disaster - I mean, what kind of a batter would you get using only those ingredients?!

But weirdly enough, the batter was smooth and the Josephines themselves.. well.. I feel like repeating myself, but they are like almonds gone to heaven!

I don't think they will keep well, though; they are very moist - maybe in the fridge they'd keep up to a week or so, but I think I'll make a second batch just before Christmas and serve these first ones asap ;)

For 10 small-cupcake-sized Josephines you need:

• 300g marzipan


• 170g butter


• 90g egg yolks


• about 10g almond flakes


• plus some extra butter for the forms

This is how you make them:

Grate the marzipan into a baking bowl. Add softened butter and stir until well combined. Then add egg yolks and stir again until smooth. Prepare the cupcake forms: I suggest you use silicon ones - I tried in both silicon and aluminum ones, but although I had buttered the aluminum forms really well, the Josephines wouldn't come out of them well. Place some almond flakes into each form, then fill with batter and bake in a preheated oven (150-170C) about 15 minutes or until well set.

Let the Josephines cool before taking them out of the forms.

Serve immediately!

P.S. I have no idea where the Swedish name Josefiner comes from: a quick Google search in English and French didn't result in any similar recipes... so I'll call them Josephines until I find out what they really are called in English :)

 

Day 2: Candied Orange Peel

I admit – I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life! But nothing as serious as having thrown away the best part of all the oranges I’ve ever eaten – the peel, that is. Even the not-so-tasty oranges have a luxuriously delicious peel! Of course, I’m talking about organic, non-treated oranges; the peel of waxed oranges is not edible (correct me if I'm wrong!).

So, instead of throwing away orange peels, dry them and use for baking. Or, even better, try this recipe of candied orange peel! I found it in Rena Salamans great book "The Greek Cook".

It’s amazing how during the 36 hours of making the candied orange peel the whole house is filled with irresistible orange smell. (But don’t worry, the active time of making them is actually quite short!) Only that smell makes the work worthwhile. In addition, candied orange peels are a real eye-catcher and they taste heavenly!

Here the time-planning is crucial: for me, it made sense to soak the peels late in the afternoon, let them stand the required 24 hours, do the cooking part early in the evening, and let stand until this morning.

For about 36 pieces you need:

• 4 organic oranges


• 400g sugar


• the juice of one small lemon or half a big one


• …and some strong yarn & a needle

Peel the oranges in a way that you get long stripes about two to three centimeters wide. Roll the stripes tight and secure them by binding 10-12 together in a “bracelet” (see the picture above) with needle and yarn.

Place the “bracelets” in a bowl filled with cold water. Let stand about 24 hours. Change the water 3-4 times. This is done to reduce the bitterness of the orange peels.

Drain the peels and place in a big saucepan. Cover with 2 liters of cold water. Bring to the boil and let simmer for 15 minutes. Drain the peels and repeat the procedure with fresh water. This time, let the peels simmer about 10 minutes or until they start to soften. Be careful not to overcook them.

Drain the peels again. In the meantime, prepare the syrup: place sugar and water in a heavy pan. Warm until the sugar has dissolved (add some more water if necessary), then let boil over a low heat until the mixture turns into thick syrup, or about 5 minutes. Be careful, it burns easily! Now, remove the yarn and place the peels into the syrup. Let simmer over a low heat about 5 minutes. Let cool and stand overnight.

Next morning, bring the mixture once more to the boil. Let simmer 5 more minutes, add the lemon juice, stir, remove from heat, and let cool completely. Place the peels and the syrup in well-washed jars.

If you sterilize the jars, the candied orange peels should keep easily for two years. I’m not going to try to find out if that’s true, though… Just happy if they make it until Christmas!

P.S. Don't throw the syrup away: it can be used in baking, or for flavouring of pancakes, yoghurt, and so on.



 

Day 1: Stollen

When baking for a day still quite far away in the future, it’s important to make sure that what you’re baking will still be good on the D-day.

So what could be a better candidate than a Christmas cake that was traditionally baked in Germany around the Christmas time - and eaten until Easter? This Christmas wonder is called Stollen - and that's what I decided to start with.

Most Stollen recipes involve a lot of yeast. I’m not a big fan of yeast, and I prefer baking with sourdough starter instead. So I tried to bake my Stollen with sourdough starter, with only a tiny bit of yeast as a guarantee it would ferment properly (maybe it’s the low temperature in my house, but my starter hasn’t worked perfectly lately).

It’s impossible to say whether the recipe I’ll share withyou is a good one. I will only be able to tell in about two week's time - that's how long it takes for this cake to develop its taste fully. But judging by the taste of the dough and the smell of the Stollen, I’m very optimistic!

For two smallish Stollen (a bit less than 450g each) you need:

• 120g sourdough starter, refreshed about 6-8 hours before with milk


• about 2g fresh yeast


• 100ml milk


• 2 Tbsp rum


• 1 egg


• 80g butter, melted


• grated zest of 1 organic lemon


• 50g sugar


• a pinch of salt


• a pinch of cardamom


• a pinch of cinnamon


• 140g sultanas


• 3 Tbsp candied lemon peel


• 40g ground almond


• 250g all-purpose flour

• plus about 70g melted butter and 4 tsp confectioner’s sugar on top

This is how you make it:

Combine lukewarm milk and yeast in a baking bowl. Add starter, egg, melted butter, sugar, salt (if using non-salted butter, consider using two pinches), lemon peel, and rum. Then add almond, sultanas, candied lemon peel, cinnamon, cardamom, and lastly, the flour. Knead until the dough is smooth, about 5 minutes, and add more flour if needed. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let ferment in a draft-free place overnight.

In the morning, punch the dough on a baking surface and divide in two. Take one part and using your hands, form a rectangle. Fold the rectangle in the middle to form a Stollen, and place it on a baking tray covered with a parchment paper. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Make sure that no sultanas are on the surface - if there are, push them gently inside the Stollen; sultanas tend to burn very easily! Proof about one hour. Preheat the oven to 180 C and bake the cakes until they are golden brown on top and also well baked inside.

Once out of the oven, brush each Stollen with about 35g melted butter and sprinkle 2 tsp confectioner’s sugar on each. Let cool completely. Then wrap the cakes into a tin foil, place in a plastic bag and store in a cool place (not the fridge, though, it’s too cold and humid) for at least two weeks.

I’ll try to wait two weeks before tasting my first Stollen. I’ll keep you posted about the results!

P.S. Obviously, this recipe was no consolation for the kids - so we had some mousse au chocolat as a dessert instead! But hope they'll have better luck tomorrow.

Chocolate Mousse Cake

You know the feeling when you get to eat something divine, ask for the recipe and are lucky enough to get it, try it out yourself – only to be bitterly disappointed with the result? Well, this is what happened to me with an absolutely exquisite chocolate mousse cake. A Portuguese friend of mine had served this tempting and delicious chocolate dessert a few months ago.

After the first failed experiment, I decided not to bake that cake anymore. I just couldn't take the disappointment anymore.

Things recently changed. The reason is that I have been drowning in egg whites that have been left over from pastéis (where you only use the yolks). And I got an idea: what if I used a lot of egg whites in the chocolate mousse cake, instead of whole eggs? Luckily enough, it worked! This cake is fluffy, tasty, and dangerously addictive. Bake at your own risk!

For one cake you need:

• 7-8 egg whites


• 2 eggs, whites and yolks separated


• 150g butter


• 250g dark chocolate


• 200g sugar


• 8g vanilla sugar


• 100g all-purpose flour

First, melt the chocolate and the butter in a saucepan or in the microwave. Add the two egg yolks and stir. Let cool a bit. In the meantime, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then add sugar and vanilla sugar gradually and continue beating. Now, add flour and the butter-chocolate-mixture to the egg whites and stir gently so that all ingredients get well combined. Pour into a buttered round cake form and bake in a preheated oven (175C) until the sides set but the center is still a bit liquid, or about 15-20 minutes.

Let the cake cool well and serve it plain or with some vanilla sauce or ice cream. And good coffee, of course!

P.S. I asked my daughter if the cake tasted as good as Orlanda's. "Well, almost", was her honest answer!

Pastéis de 4114 km de Belém

All my friends know how good I am at keeping secrets. Not very good, I’m afraid. In fact, I suck at it! So no way I’d be able to keep the recipe of almost perfect pastéis as a secret for two centuries… even two days would have been tough!

So here you have it, the not-so-secret recipe of mine. It's quite complex, though, so please ask if you've got any problems at any point!

It is mandatory that the puff pastry be homemade. But don’t worry, I suck at making puff pastry almost as badly as at keeping secrets. And yet I managed to do it – for this purpose, the dough just doesn’t have to be perfect (like, say, for croissants, which I’ve failed miserably every time I’ve tried to make them so far). Any attempt you make will be good enough for pastéis!

I used 1/3 whole-grain wheat and 2/3 all-purpose flour, but for a more traditional result, use only all-purpose. Not everyone is a fan of whole-grain like myself! And not everyone has as good flour as I have, and even I am tragically running out of it. (Time to visit Germany to get some more?!)

For about 30 pastéis you need:

For the dough:

• 400g flour


• 225ml warm water


• 200g butter


• (1/4 tsp salt but only if using unsalted butter)

For the filling:

• 12-14 egg yolks (reserve the whites to use for some other purpose)


• 200g sugar


• 4 Tbps cornstarch


• 1,2 liters heavy cream


• zest of one organic lemon, cut in long stripes


• one vanilla pod

First, make the filling. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring constantly. This tends to burn really easily, so don’t even think of leaving the custard, even for two seconds! Let cool completely and make the dough in the meantime.

To make the dough, place the flour in a baking bowl. Make a hole in the middle, pour in the warm water, and work the dough with your hands until it’s smooth. Always start with a bit less water and add more if needed. It should be firm and smooth at the same time.

Now roll the dough out to a rectangle a bit smaller than an A4 paper. Smear half of the dough with softened butter. Fold the unbuttered half over the buttered one. Now, turn the dough 90 degrees and roll it into a long rectangle. Fold in three parts and let rest in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Repeat this rolling-out-and-folding-in-three still twice. Don’t worry if some butter comes out – just make sure to use enough flour so that the dough doesn’t glue to the baking surface!

After the last fold, let the dough rest in the fridge some 10 minutes and roll it out into a rectangle as thin as you can. Then, roll the dough in just as when you’re making cinnamon rolls.

Now comes the hard part: cut the rolled-in dough into pieces of about 1,5cm thick and place each in a buttered pastéis form or a muffin form. Take the form into your hands and with your thumbs, work the dough gently so that it in the end covers the sides of the form as well. (This might sound complicated, still hanging there?) It’s important to find the right amount of dough: it should be very thin but not break. Once you’ve done a couple of them, you’ll find the ideal amount of dough!

Then return to your filling. Remove lemon zests and vanilla pod (which you can use 2-3 times) from the custard. Fill the dough-covered forms with the custard. Bake in a pre-heated oven (250C) for about 10 minutes or until your pastéis get brown spots but don’t burn (which happens very easily, so don’t leave them unattended in the oven!). I’ve been told that the real pastéis get baked in 400C, but even 300C was way too much for my oven and my pastéis. Remember to place an extra tray on the bottom of your oven to catch any extra butter that might drip during the baking.

Serve your pastéis warm or cold, with or without some cinnamon on top!

P.S. Of course,  you can use ready-made puff pastry – but it just won’t be the same…

P.P.S. Needless to say, the distance between my new home and  Rua de Belém, 84-92 is 4114 km!

 

A Must in Lisbon: Pastéis de Belém

If a wanna-be vegan with a severe case of lactose intolerance arrives in Lisbon and rushes immediately to Pastéis de Belém to eat half a dozen of little custard pastries, either that person must have some issues – or those pastries are just divine. Not denying completely the first possibility, I’d say the second option is closer to the truth. Actually, pastéis de Belém have been nominated the 15th most delicious thing in the world!

Pastéis de Belém have been baked with the same secret recipe ever since they were invented in 1837. They are sold exclusively at the iconic coffee shop bearing the same name. The whole establishment in an incomparable experience. When entering the building, you’d say you’re in a Turkish bath: the walls are covered with azulejos, typical Portuguese oriental-looking decorative tile works. The omnipresent smell of pastéis reveals that this is a totally different thing.

When you first look around, you think the place is full. Then you see a passage leading to the next room, which is full as well and which leads to yet another one – until there’s one with tables available. (I’ve been wondering how many rooms they actually have? Is there an end?)

Then you sit down – and might be lucky and get served right away. But more often than not, the waiter attending you is older than your grandfather and might not notice or hear you at all in the beginning. Sooner or later, he’ll choose to ask what you’d like to have – and I strongly recommend you ask for at least two pastéis, if not meia duzia of them, and a coffee. And a whole duzia to take with you, of course!

All this taken into account, it’s actually amazing that pastéis hadn't sooner become the target of my culinary obsession. Maybe I just thought it would be impossible to make anything comparable. Even the Portuguese fail miserably with their pastéis de natas – a version of pastéis that shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence with those of Belém.

But then I started thinking. And reading. And thinking some more. What makes those of Belém so superior to any other pastéis? It’s the filling, of course, so fluffy and tasty and not overly sweet. “Like flan gone to heaven,” said a friend of mine. But even more it’s the dough: it’s not any ordinary puff pastry they use. It’s got very fine layers, and it’s crispy and oh so tasty!

After having thought enough, I made an experience. (My first experience was actually before having read anything, and it was a terrible disaster.) And it worked. Oh, my, God. It worked. I’m not saying I re-invented the pastéis de Belém, but still. The result was clearly better than all the natas I’ve had so far. The best review came from my son: “Mum, these taste almost like those of Belém!”

And the recipe? Oh, no! I’m not going to reveal it! My intention is to keep it a family secret for at least two centuries. I can already imagine secret family meetings behind closed doors where the recipe will be passed to the next generation. So no, there’s not going to be a recipe after all!

Apfelstrudel, or Apples the Austrian Way

During the past few weeks, I’ve been drowning in apples. And I’m not the only one – it’s been (and still is) an incredibly good apple season in Finland!

But what to do with these huge amounts of malus domestica? I’ve already pureed several kilos of them, I’ve made Tarte Tatins and other apple pies, and there’s still a lot left!

Then it struck me that I’ve actually never tried to make the iconic Austrian apple dessert, Apfelstrudel, at home. So I did some research and started working! After one not-so-well-succeeded attempt, I found the perfect recipe. My starting point was this one from chefkoch.de.

Note that it’s important NOT to peel the apples. If you do, you end up losing a lot of the taste. You'll need a bit less than 1kg of apples to get 800g of sliced apples.

This recipe yields two strudels, each one enough to feed about 6 people. If you want to make only one strudel, I suggest you make one portion of dough anyway: keep half of it in the fridge, because you the most certainly will want to make another one SOON!

Dough:

• 50g whole-grain spelt or wheat flour


• 200g all-purpose flour


• 2g salt


• 1 egg


• 20g neutral-tasting oil (sunflower, for example)


• 100ml warm water

Filling:

• 800g apples, unpeeled but cores removed, sliced very thin


• 100g butter, divided


• 100g breadcrumbs


• 140g sugar


• 170g raisins


• zest of one organic lemon


• 8g cinnamon

Plus about 300ml neutral-tasting oil for the oil bath (see the recipe)

This is how to do it:

First, prepare the dough. Combine flour and salt in a baking bowl and make a hole in the middle. In another bowl, combine warm water, oil, and the egg. Stir, then pour in the hole. With your hands, work the dough until it’s smooth and elastic. Now follows the weirdest part: fill a small bowl with oil. Work the dough into a ball and place it in the oil. Yes, you read right! Let the dough rest in the oil bath for about 30 minutes and you’ll get the most elastic dough ever!



In the meantime, prepare the filling. Melt 50g butter in a pan. Stir in the breadcrumbs and continue stirring for about 2 minutes, or until the crumbs start gaining some colour. Remove from heat.

Place the apple slices in a bowl. Add the sugar, raisins, cinnamon, grated lemon zest, and the breadcrumb-butter-mixture. Stir until everything is well combined.

Now, take the dough from the oil bath. Remove excess oil and divide the dough into two equal-sized parts. Pat each in a bit of flour. Now follows the second weirdest part: roll the dough out on a kitchen towel into a square, as thin as you can, about 35cm*25cm. Oddly enough, the dough doesn’t stick to the fabric – especially if you sprinkle it with a bit of flour.

Melt the rest of the butter. Brush the rolled dough with about 2/3 of the melted butter. Place the filling on the dough, leaving about 3cm on the sides uncovered and about 5cm at the bottom side. Fold the sides (see the picture). Gently roll your strudel like a Swiss roll – it goes surprisingly easy with the towel!



Transfer your strudel carefully onto a baking tray so that the seam-side faces down (and proceed to make the second strudel). Bake your strudel(s) in a preheated oven (190C) for about 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Be careful not to let them burn, though; burned raisins taste horribly bitter ;)

Brush the strudel(s) with melted butter once they’re out of the oven. Let cool a bit and sprinkle with (vanilla-flavoured) confectioner’s sugar.

To me, strudel tastes the best when cooled down to room temperature, but I totally understand if you can’t wait that long! Vanilla sauce or ice-cream is a must with Apfelstrudel, of course.

Clafoutis, or the Reason Why Cherries Were Created

For me, summer only really starts the day I can make the first clafoutis, or French cherry pie! This year, that happened on Wednesday. Since then, I’ve baked six clafoutis – that is an average of 1,2 per day. That might tell something about how irresistible this thing is!

The recipe is from my very old version of Larousse de la Cuisine, which I haven’t seen for ages – but that’s ok, because this is one of the few recipes I could recite by heart even if woken up in the middle of the night.

You’re supposed to use cherries without removing the pits, and I’d suggest you really don’t. If you remove the pits, the whole thing gets coloured by the cherry juice, and doesn’t look that great…

For about six servings you need:

• 500g cherries


• 4 eggs


• 80g flour (I use 40g whole-grain, 40g all-purpose wheat)


• 80g butter


• 125g sugar


• 1 tsp vanilla sugar


• 250ml milk

This is how to do it:

Set your oven to 190C. Place the cherries (with their pits still in!) in a round cake form with a diameter of 26cm or so. Melt the butter. Crack the eggs in a baking bowl, and beat them lightly together with sugar and vanilla sugar (I emphasize the word lightly! A bit like when you’re doing an omelette…). Then add flour, stir until it gets well mixes, then add milk and butter, and slightly stir again.

Pour the batter over the cherries and bake your clafoutis until it’s set and nicely brown on the top. Remove form the oven and let cool a bit. Then decorate with confectioner’s sugar and serve – either a bit warm, or completely cooled down. And enjoy the summer! :)

Miraculous Two-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

About two years ago, I was desperately looking for vegan chocolate mousse recipes. I thought I’d tried them all: with avocado, with banana, with silk tofu, with whipped coconut cream – you name it. And yet, all of them were a more or less big disappointment compared to the one and only – you know, 3 eggs, 30 grams butter, 100g dark chocolate, a bit of sugar – the one recipe I haven’t had to look up in the past twenty years or so!

Oddly enough, I never came across this recipe when doing my research last time. I only found this amazingly easy recipe when I was looking for quick chocolate desserts. But on top of being really easy to do, this chocolate mousse also happens to be vegan (provided the dark chocolate you use is vegan). No milk, no eggs, nothing except for dark chocolate, and one secret ingredient.

Curious to know what it is? It isn’t tofu, cream, avocado, or banana. Nothing of the like.

It is… water!

Yes, you read right. All you need to do this perfectly tasty and creamy chocolate mousse is chocolate and H2O.

I like my mousse very bitter, very chocolaty, so I used 75% dark chocolate. If you like it sweeter, use 50% or 60% chocolate and/or add some sugar.

This is what you need for 3 smallish portions:

• 125g dark chocolate


• 100ml water

And this is what to do:

1. Measure the water and chocolate in a saucepan and let melt over a medium heat.

2. Remove from the heat, transfer the melted chocolate into a baking bowl over an ice bath (even very cold water is enough).

3. Now, beat the mixture with a mixer or with a twirl whisk for 2-3 minutes (I used a twirl whisk and it took about 5 minutes), or until the mixture starts to thicken.

4. Transfer it into three espresso cups or other small serving cups and let your mousse set either in the fridge or at the room temperature for a couple of hours before serving!

If you like, you can add something to flavour your mousse – how about coffee mousse, with some instant coffee powder? Or a small amount of Cointreau to give a citric twist?

Frozen Yoghurt with Lemon and Honey

This morning I walked past our local frozen yoghurt bar, and it struck me how perfectly frozen yoghurt would fit in my current dessert series! You know, the desserts that make themselves while you’re eating your main dish.

The convenience of frozen yoghurt over other types of ice cream is not just that it contains less fat and mostly sugar as well. It also helps you avoid one crucial and very time-consuming step: yoghurt is already cold enough for your ice-cream maker (as long as you keep your yoghurt in the fridge, that is ;) ), so no need to cool it before feeding it to your ice cream maker…

I decided to flavour my frozen yoghurt with lemon and honey – but feel free to try other flavours as well!

For a vegan version, use non-dairy yoghurt and sweeten it with sugar or agave syrup, for example.

This is what you need for three smallish portions:

• 500ml plain yoghurt


• 2 Tbsp liquid honey


• 1 tsp grated lemon zest

To make this is ridiculously easy. Just combine yoghurt, honey, and lemon zest, and make the frozen yoghurt according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. With mine, this amount of frozen yoghurt took 15 minutes to make – exactly the time it took us to eat our pizzas! Decorate and serve.

Sticky Toffee Sauce

Sticky toffee sauce is one of my favourite accompaniments for ice cream and/or strawberries. I used to make it myself quite often a long, long time ago, but not being a fan of cooking that hot syrup (sooo afraid of burning it, me, or the kids :) ), I haven’t made it in many years now.

But going through my old magazines I came across one toffee sauce recipe where you don’t actually need to melt any sugar – you can use molasses instead. So I’m back to my sticky toffee sauce routine!

This is a dessert you can make while preparing the main course - all you really need to do is to stir the sauce once a while during the ten minutes it needs to cook.

For 6 people you need:

• 100ml dark molasses (or dark treacle; Zuckerrübensirup here in Germany)


• 200ml heavy cream (non-dairy for a vegan version)


• 30g butter (or vegan margarine)

Combine molasses and cream in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, and let boil over a low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring once in a while. The sauce is ready when it starts to thicken. Now, add the butter, let it melt, and stir until the butter is well combined with the rest. Remove from the heat.

Serve hot, warm, or cold with ice cream and/or berries or fruit – if you resist the temptation to spoon it all up just like that…!

P.S. Nothing compares with the taste of a homemade sticky toffee sauce - with three ingredients. And I find the colour perfect as well. Makes me wonder how come the ones available at the supermarket have so many ingredients: one that I saw had 15 altogether – among them two different artificial flavours, colouring agents, and so on. Totally unnecessary, if you ask me ;)

Chocolate Fondue, the No Effort Way

I’m going to make a confession: Before coming up with this idea I had never eaten chocolate fondue. It’s always been a tempting idea, yet I wasn’t ready to invest money and especially cupboard space in those cute little chocolate fondue pots.

But then I realised you don’t need any fondue pots! You can use espresso cups, and make a hot water bath do the job for you – while you’re eating your main dish, of course!

Use any fresh seasonal fruit or berries to dip in the fondue. I bet at least mango, pineapple, peaches, cherries, and bananas would taste awesome! But now it’s the second last week of (at least organic) strawberry season here in southern Germany, so I didn't have a choice, did I?

For one portion you need:

• 2 Tbsp (non-dairy) heavy cream


• 20g dark (vegan) chocolate


• about 15 fruit pieces or berries to dip in the fondue

First, combine cream and chocolate in espresso cups. Then place the cups in an earthenware oven dish. Fill the dish with boiling water just enough for the cups to be covered until the cream-chocolate-level. (If you happen to have pasta for the main dish, think of using the cooking water to do this! Hugely ecological :) )

Once you’re ready to have your dessert, just stir the chocolate-cream-mixture gently with a spoon and remove from the water bath. Serve with fruit – dip them in the “fondue” with a small dessert fork! And don’t forget a spoon – you’ll need it to scrape the rest of that yummy chocolate…!

Oven Pancake with Strawberries and Crème Chantilly

Pancakes are a great dessert after a light meal - like pea soup! But who has the time to make them? No problem, pancake batter can also be baked in the oven. Once again, you can enjoy your main course while your oven is taking care of the dessert.

This time of the year I normally serve oven pancake with fresh berries and whipped cream - when no fresh berries are available, use raspberry or strawberry jam instead!

This is what you need for 6 portions:

• 150g flour (I use whole-grain, but you can use all-purpose as well)


• 400ml milk


• 3 eggs


• a pinch of salt


• 8g vanilla sugar


• 30g butter

This is how you proceed:

1. Set your oven to 225 C when you start cooking the main dish.

2. Make the batter: in a bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, and milk, and beat gently. Then add the eggs and beat until well combined.

3. Take a round cake form (mine has a diameter of 26cm). Slice the butter and place the slices in the form. Put the form in the oven for just the time it takes for the butter to melt. Then take the form out again, pour the batter in, and put it back in the oven.

4. Go and enjoy your main dish! Set the alarm for 15 minutes - it takes around 15-20 minutes for the pancake to be ready.

5. Serve warm with berries and crème Chantilly!